Advertising Editor Advertising Intelligence

How do I create a search ad campaign?

Creating a search ad campaign is a snap! Here are some quick steps to get an ad campaign up and running.

Creating a new search ad campaign in Microsoft Advertising is easier than ever!

  1. From the collapsible menu on the left, select All campaigns > Campaigns > Create.

    If you're using the new Microsoft Advertising navigation, from the navigation menu on the left, select Create.

  2. Choose Drive conversions or Generate leads as your campaign goal.
  3. Select Search as your campaign type.
  4. Select Search ads below Which ad type would you like to serve?
  5. Select Continue.
  6. The campaign creation wizard will then walk you through the process.

Here is some information about what you'll see in each step:

1. Campaign settings expando image
In the first step, you give us the basic details of your campaign:
Campaign name
Give your campaign a unique name. It's a good idea to have your campaign's name reflect its goal.

Note: A campaign name cannot contain scripts, HTML, or other markup language.

Campaign budget
This is the amount of money you want to spend per day. Learn more about your budget options
Location
This is where in the world you want your ads to appear. You can target or exclude specific countries/regions, states/provinces, cities, or zip/postal codes. Learn more about how language and location targeting affect who can see your ads
Who?
If you're targeting by location, who exactly should see your ads? People in your targeted locations, people searching for or viewing pages about your targeted locations, or both?
Language
This is the language you'll write your ads in. This should match the language of the sites that you'd like your ads to appear on. Learn more about language options in Microsoft Advertising
Disclaimer
If you're advertising products that require additional caveats for legal or other reasons, select the checkbox to add a disclaimer.
Dynamic search ads
Select this option to create search ads that are dynamically generated to respond to potential customers' search queries.
2. Ad groups expando image
In the second step, you set the ad groups and keywords for your campaign. Campaigns are made up of ad groups, and ad groups are made up of sets of tightly-related keywords. Keywords are the words or phrases people search on when looking for a product or service. Learn more about keywords and how to build keyword lists
Your website
Enter the URL of your website, and Microsoft Advertising will search it for ad group and keyword suggestions. If your website doesn't have all its necessary content yet, select the My website is not ready checkbox.
Get keyword suggestions
If you entered a URL for Your website, this is where you'll see our suggested ad groups and keywords. You can also enter a different URL or a word or phrase relevant to your product or service and get keyword suggestions for it. Select the arrows to move ad groups or keywords into the Enter keywords box on the left.
Enter keywords
If you're entering keywords manually, type or paste them here. In this box, you'll also set the appropriate match type for your keywords. Learn more about keyword match types
Add new ad group
You likely have more than one facet of your campaign, so it's a good idea to create a separate ad group for each. For example, if you sell men’s clothes, you might have separate ad groups, with separate keyword lists, for dress shirts and casual shirts. Learn more about organizing your account and campaigns
3. Ads & ad extensions expando image
In the third step, you create the ads for your campaign:
Ad type
Learn about the different types of ads you can create
Creating ads
We recommend creating multiple ads in each ad group. Experiment with your wording and keywords so you can see what works best. Here are some tips on writing effective ads
Ad extensions
Ad extensions are additional pieces of information about your business that you can add to your ads. We will feature the ad extensions that are most relevant to the campaign goal you set at the very start. Learn more about ad extensions
4. Budget & bids expando image
In the fourth step, you review your campaign budget and set your bids:
Campaign budget
This is the amount that you set in the first step. You can make changes to it in this step and see how it affects your estimated performance.
Bid strategy
Your bid strategy setting tells Microsoft Advertising how you want to manage your bids. Learn more about bid strategies
Ad group bid
Try changing the bid amounts and see how the performance estimates in the table change. Learn more about these performance estimates
Advanced campaign settings
Here you have the option to change your campaign's targeting settings.

After you select Save in the fourth step, your search ads will begin appearing on the Microsoft Search Network shortly, unless there is an error with your account.

Notes

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